First Generation Immigrant - Essay Sample

Introduction

A first-generation immigrant, is a person who was born in a certain country then moves to a new country to reside there and he or she becomes a citizen of the new country. One has to become a citizen of the second country and live there permanently in order to be referred to as an immigrant. They are also be referred to as settlers

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Country of Origin

This information is got from a thirty-four-year-old male from Libya. Libya is a country from North Africa. The eastern and the northern hemispheres, pass through Libya. The country borders the Mediterranean Sea. The country is popular for its rich production of crude oil. Before the war crisis began in Libya it was the wealthiest country in Africa. The country gets most of its wealth from oil reserves. The country is the largest oil supplier in Africa. Libya is known for its oil by mostly because of it being ruled for forty-two years by one president by the name Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya was colonized by the Italians and gained its independence in the year 1947 on the 10Th of February. Its citizens speak in two major languages which are Teda and Italian. The capital city of Libya is Tripoli, and the country has had only two presidents since they got their independence (Pargeter, A. (2009). They are Muammar Gaddafi and the current Idris I. Muammar Gaddafi lost his power on August 22, 2011, through rebellion. This led to the collapse or the downfall of the country because of the long-term civil war due to the assassination of their revolutionist and leader Muammar Gaddafi. The war started as civil protests and later evolved to a civil war which led to mass killing and destruction of property. The country was in chaos. The eruption of the civil war was the cause of immigration to the United States of America by our interviewee.

Decision to Immigrate

Due to continuous insecurity of Libya in the year 2011, our interviewee had to leave the country in order to stay alive. His name is Abdullah Khaled, a popular boy's name in the country. The civil war led to the death of all his family members, only his sister and he were saved because they were at school, hence getting protection from the USA Army. Khaled's parents' house was destroyed together with everything else his family owned. Some valuables were looted leaving nothing for them to feel at home anymore. The trauma he and his sister had wouldn't let them stay in the house or homestead knowing their parents were killed in there, anyway, they couldn't stay there because the house wasn't safe anymore for a person's habitat. They had to live as squatters together with other families for months getting food supplies and medication from some non-governmental organizations (Siebens, J., & Case, B. (2014). Life was hard for both him and his sister and he felt that his dreams were being crashed as he was the top student in his school. Khaled's dream was to be a prominent doctor which he is at the moment. He says, he believes that wherever his parents are, are proud of him and that he made the right decision.

Process of Immigration

The hard life at Libya, his home country, in 2011 and the following year together with the passion to pursue his dreams to live a better life made him look for a solution. He wanted to go to school but he had no money to take him back. He heard from a friend that he could get small jobs in the United States that could help him raise money to go back to school. Meanwhile, he applied for a scholarship at Harvard University with help from the non-governmental organization he was working for.

He had made his mind that he was going to live in the states for the rest of his life as apart from his sister nothing else was left for him in the country. He influenced his sister too to follow him, he was like a father to her now because she had become his responsibility. He acquired a job in a gas station which enabled him and his sister get immigration visas. He got a green card and had an agreement with his employer who filled a petition on his behalf with the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) (Mukhopadhyay, S., & Oxborrow, D. (2012). He had no problem in moving to the United States because a green card is a lottery that is played and whoever wins has the right to live in the USA permanently the green card allows one to enter the USA without any complications.

Socio-Economic Factors

After the end of the Libyan Civil War on October 23, 2011, which happened for over six months Libya has left a broken country. Mass killing leads to loss of strong men who could provide labor for the betterment and growth of the country. Young and innovative minds were also lost due to the civil war. Destroyed infrastructure led to backward development and loss of funds that could have been used for development. The country is still struggling to get back at its feet instead of developing. Libya was once the richest country but now it's among the poorest due to the civil war that destroyed properties. Unlike the United States of America which is a stable and developed country with many opportunities to achieve your dreams (De Haas, H. (2008). The security in the USA is stronger and better in a wide range due to their developed nature. The USA is one of the superpowers of the world while Libya is a third-world country. Health care, means of transport and education in the USA is in the very best state but in Libya not everyone can access them, leave alone the basic needs.

In the USA there are better opportunities, better working conditions and better payment of employees than in Libya.in Libya, jobs are not available due to slow developments and lack of funds. Workers in the USA have better skills compared to those in Libya due to better training and availability of modernized equipment and machinery.

In working areas of today and in the personal lives of this computerized era internet has become very necessary for efficient working. There are online job creations which employ the citizen who then assists in building the country. The Internet has simplified communication leading to faster delivering.in Libya, very few people can access the internet connection and even those who can access it's very slow and unreliable making them left behind in development (Bayoud, N. S., Kavanagh, M., & Slaughter, G. (2012). The level of illiteracy is very high in Libya compared to the USA.

Summary

Many people migrate to the USA annually which has made it a metropolitan state. It is the country with the most immigrant in the world from all corners of the world. Those who immigrate legally live in the country as full Americans get all the rights provided.

References

Pargeter, A. (2009). Localism and radicalization in North Africa: local factors and the development of political Islam in Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. International affairs, 85(5), 1031-1044. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-abstract/85/5/1031/2326290

Bayoud, N. S., Kavanagh, M., & Slaughter, G. (2012). Factors influencing levels of corporate social responsibility disclosure Libyan firms: A mixed study. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 4(4), 13-29. Retrieved from https://eprints.usq.edu.au/20970

Siebens, J., & Case, B. (2014). The Libyan civil war: Context and consequences. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.462.690&rep=rep1&type=pdf

De Haas, H. (2008). The myth of invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe. Third world quarterly, 29(7), 1305-1322. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436590802386435

Mukhopadhyay, S., & Oxborrow, D. (2012). The value of an employment-based green card. Demography, 49(1), 219-237. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-011-0079-3